Taraji P. Henson Reveals She Contemplated Suicide Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Taraji P. Henson

Taraji P. Henson Reveals She Contemplated Suicide Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

The seemingly neverending COVID-19 pandemic has had a dire impact on millions of people around the globe, including celebrities like actress Taraji P. Henson. 

She revealed in a telling episode of her Facebook Watch series, Peace of Mind with Taraji, that she contemplated taking her own life. She told co-host Tracie Jade and psychologist Dr. LaShonda Green:

“For a couple of days, I couldn’t get out of the bed, I didn’t care. That’s not me. Then, I started having thoughts about ending it.”

Taraji P. Henson added that she had recently bought a gun and told herself:

“I could go in there right now, and just end it all.”

During her dark moment, she even considered how her son, 26-year-old Marcell Johnson, would be impacted and said she thought:

“He’s grown, he’ll get over it.”

Thankfully, she was able to overcome it after telling a friend about her struggle.

“I felt myself withdrawing. People were calling me, I wasn’t responding. I just didn’t care. Finally, I’m talking to one of my girlfriends and I knew, I was smart enough to say, ‘I have to say it.'”

While she said she felt “ashamed” about it, she decided to open up anyway.

“I was like, I don’t want them to think I’m crazy. I don’t want them to, you know, obsess over me or think they gotta come and sit on me.”

“So one day I just blurted it out, to my girlfriend. She called me in the morning and I was like, ‘You know I thought about killing myself last night.'”

Taraji P. Henson said that was all she needed to recover and told her friend:

“‘Oh my god, I feel so much better. I’m not gonna do it now.'”

She went on to say:

“For me, I’m no professional, but I felt like, if I don’t say it, it becomes a plan. And what scared me, is that I did it two nights in a row. And the thoughts kept coming. Now I started think about how. At first, it was like, I don’t want to be here. And then I started thinking about going and getting the gun. And that’s why when I woke up the next morning, and I blurted it out. Because I felt like after a while it was going to take over me and it was going to become a plan because that’s how strong my brain is.”

Prayers for Taraji P. Henson!